When is a stand-alone computer not a stand-alone computer? When you use Partition Magic to convert it into two (or more) functioning PCs.

Let's face it. Not everyone can get through his or her life with a single PC. It's certainly an exception, rather than the rule, but some people rely on software that runs under multiple operating systems--Windows and Linux, for example. Or possibly two distinct versions of Windows, itself, especially since the introduction of Windows XP, which doesn't always support older hardware. If you're one of these multi-OS users, you could buy a second computer. Or, for a fraction of the cost, you could pick up Partition Magic and modify your current PC to meet your needs.

Partition Magic lets you reconfigure your current hard drive into multiple partitions, converting unused portions of it into additional, virtual drives. Best of all, it accomplishes this without destroying your current data. And best-of-best of all, new partitions can be created to hold additional operating systems, allowing you to choose during startup which one you want to use.

This is all pretty technical stuff, operations that dig into the very heart of your hardware. And yet, Partition Magic handles the task with relative ease and, if our tests were any indication, without a hitch. Within an hour of installing Partition Magic, we managed to subdivide an 18GB hard drive into three partitions--one running Windows ME, one running Windows XP, and a third, shared, data drive that was accessible to either operating system. And we accomplished all this without once opening the Partition Magic documentation, the program is that well designed and intuitive to use.

After performing all this digital sleight-of-hand, we were able to use Boot Magic, a utility bundled with Partition Magic, to set up a procedure that allowed us to specify which version of Windows we wanted to access, each time we started our test computer.

Partition Magic doesn't stop with that initial configuration. Disk partitions can be moved, resized, hidden, or deleted, anytime after they're created. For example, we reduced the size of our initial Windows ME partition several gigabytes and allocated the resulting free space to that shared data disk. Again, the steps required to accomplish this were so intuitive, we didn't need to crack open any documentation to get started.

Arthur C. Clarke once stated that "Any technology advanced enough, will appear to be magic." After using Partition Magic for a few days, we agree.

Pro: Reliably lets you restructure your disk drives to increase system flexibility.
Con: Requires some technical knowledge to understand, if not initiate, some of its more complicated operations.